Venture ForthPlaying the entire campaign in a couple of hours

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What Is This Game About?This is the story of a party of adventurers, from their humble beginnings to their final epic adventure. You tell of the challenges they face and how they overcome them; or, if you prefer, you can tell how they fail and what the consequences are.

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Each player controls one member of the party, describing what happens to their character on their adventures. You can help them succeed or let them fail, whatever is more interesting to you.

In two to three hours you’ll reach the maximum level and end your adventuring career with one final, extraordinary Quest. There’s no way to win or to lose, even if your character becomes a god or dies in a gutter. You’re here to tell an interesting story.

What You Need To Play2 to 4 players, 2 sheets of paper, pens or pencils, and several six-sided dice. Each player should have a piece of paper for their Character Sheet; half a sheet should suffice.

Design and layout by Eran Aviram; icons and cards by Yoav Aviram. Many thanks to the many playtesters and proofreaders, and especially to my wife, Dassi. Roleplay comics Aviv: uptofourplayers.com Roleplay practical advice with Uri: dwarfcast.net

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Some Ground Rules ◆ This is a game in which you tell a collaborative story,

there are no secrets and everything is in the open.

◆ That being said, the game is more fun when you keep your ideas to yourself, and only reveal them during your turn. Let other players come up with their own ideas, and only offer yours if asked.

◆ If you want to discuss something, you can use your action to Sit Around the Campfire (see page 15). Otherwise, refrain from talking about what’s happening in the game; play to find out what happens.

◆ This is a game about a party of adventurers; things usually happen to all of you together.

◆ Celebrate the other players’ characters as you do your own.

◆ You’re here to have fun, don’t be nasty.

This game uses “they” to refer to persons of any gender.Based on The Quiet Year by Avery Alder, and published with her blessing. Inspired by Intrepid by John Keyworth, and several editions of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game.

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SetupCreating your map and characters should take about 30 minutes.

Create the DeckSeparate the cards into three decks according to their Tier: Heroic, Paragon or Epic. Separate the cards titled “You’ve Reached the Maximum Level” from the rest of the Epic Tier cards.

Shuffle the cards for each deck, then take a number of cards from each: 8 Heroic, 7 Paragon, 6 Epic (for a longer game, or for a 5th player, add 1–2 cards to each Tier). Take one random “Maximum Level” card and, without looking at it, shuffle it into the Epic Tier deck. The rest of the cards won’t be used during this game.

Place the decks one on top of the other — Epic at the bottom, Paragon in the middle, Heroic on the top. You’ll start playing with Heroic cards and go through the Tiers.

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Create the Campaign MapPlace one sheet of paper on the table. This is your Starting Area, where the campaign begins. Give it a name, such as: the Hidden Valley, Witches’ Forest, the City of Riches, Grandia, Moki Island, the Shire, Elwynn Forest, Plains of Ashford, the High Rise, etc.

Place the second sheet of paper close by; you’ll be using it once you reach the Paragon Tier (see page 15). During the Heroic Tier you can only create new things in your Starting Area.

Each player now draws something in the Starting Area: a border or a prominent feature of the landscape, such as a mountain range, mesa, forest, river, seashore, demonic fissure, city, ruins etc. You may name them, if you wish.

Note: You can write on the Campaign Map, but only proper names of locations. Represent everything else by icons and drawings. It doesn’t have to be a great drawing, but it shouldn’t take too much space.

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Gather Your PartyDecide together on a name for the campaign or the party; everyone writes it at the top of their character sheet. This is what your game is about: think of it as the name of a fantasy adventure TV series.

Discuss this among yourselves until you find something that sounds good, even if you don’t yet know what it actually means. For example, you could name your game “The Pearl of the Deeps”, without yet knowing what the Pearl is, what it is for, etc.

A few examples: Fall of the Dark Lord, In Search of Treasure Island, The Mad King’s Crown, Out of the Storm, The Wacky Adventures of the Audacious Bards.

Starting with the player who has gone the longest without playing a role playing campaign and going clockwise, answer the following questions. If you’re unsure how to answer, ask the person to your right to answer for you.

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Remember: Your character is just starting her adventuring career, you’re not yet experienced.

◆ What’s your class? Examples: Fighter, Beastmaster Ranger, Divine Pilfer, Elvish Monk of the Seven Dials.

◆ What’s the first thing people notice about you? Examples: the gigantic hammer on my back, my incredibly eloquent style of speech, the three zombies following me obediently, the very revealing yet stylish way I dress.

◆ What’s your name? Examples: Fraal Zaltsberg, Minx the Brave, Wooha of the Blades, Sir Eq, the Warlock.

Add two Qualities (explained on the next page) that match your class and appearance: a Person, an Item, an Ability or a Reputation. You can add two of the same type if you want. Choose things that your character is likely to have, or things that you’d like to see later in the story.

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Your Character SheetEach player have a Character Sheet to represent the character they’ll create and play. You’ll be making most of the decisions about your character, some of which might lead to their death - adventuring is a dangerous business - in which case you’ll introduce a new character to the party, probably as an avenging family member, or a background character who suddenly becomes a lot more important.

On your Character Sheet you keep track of your Qualities, which are story elements that you deem interesting. They are...

◆ People you know, allies, acquaintances or enemies. The wizard Reginald, the masked bastard who ambushed us, my devoted follower Berta the bard, the inquisitors of the Order of Dawn.

◆ Items you have, but only notable things, such as important quest items or magical devices; not your rations or torches. Pearl of Power, the Sword of the Sea, a bronze key from the dragon’s dungeon, a book filled with the Duchess’s secrets.

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◆ Abilities you’ve gained, developed or learned: unusual or supernatural things you can do or that define you, probably relating to your class. Very sturdy, Fist of a Thousand Stars, fireball, Shadow Sneak, can drink down an ox, cursed to never touch water.

◆ Reputation you’ve gained or that you aim for, including notable things that happened to you or that you expect to happen. Wanted in Shale for breaking the statue, planning revenge on the Duke, aspiring leader of the island tribe, destined to carry the Forever Scythe.

Qualties can be as short as one-two words, or as long as a sentence (most Reputations should be a sentence long). Consider adding a detail or two about a Person’s demanour or position in an organiztion, an item’s property or history, or an Ability’s source or usage.

You also track Harm on your Character Sheet. Harm is the measure of the general grinding of adventuring life. It represents both declining physical health and growing mental fatigue. When a character has 3 Harm, they die.

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If your character dies, pick one Person from your Character Sheet or another player’s, and create a character based on them. Take a new Character Sheet and answer the questions as usual. Keep the old Character Sheet around, even the dead are still part of this campaign!

You shouldn’t try to avoid Harm, since you don’t win by remaining safe (you win by creating a fun story about adventurers). Harm is another tool you can use to tell a cool story. You can usually control the amount of Harm you gain or lose, but sometimes death might come as a surprise. That’s part of the adventuring life.

Optional rule: Descriptive HarmSome groups don’t enjoy the threat of dying. If this is true for your group, consider using this:

Whenever you’re supposed to gain Harm, you instead gain an unwanted Quality (see under Start a Quest, page 14). Harm is no longer tracked, and characters are no longer in danger of dying.

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Ready to Begin?All of you now create a Quest together. Each of you can later create new Quests, with the Start a Quest action (see page 14).

Decide together on a goal that your party is trying to achieve. Think about these questions:

◆ Does our campaign name sound like a riddle to be solve? Who might be able to answer it?

◆ Does our campaign name sounds like something we should try to do, or avoid? What’s the first step toward that end? Do we need to gain some knowledge we are missing? Should we find someone or something to help us overcome some challenge?

◆ Is the land, or our group, embroyled in some conflict? What do we need to overcome it?

Draw the Quest’s location on the map, and place a die on it, showing the number 3.

The player who created their character first now start their first turn by drawing a card and reading it aloud. Adventure awaits…

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Playing the GameThe game is played in turns, until you’ve Reached the Maximum Level, then it ends with one final round of epic quests.

On your turn, go through the following stages, one after the other.

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First, Draw a Card.Read it aloud and answer the question. If there’s a choice, read aloud both choices but only answer one.

Every answer must be noted on the map in some way (you can use simple icons, but the only writing allowed is location names).

If you’re asked to add or change a detail on a Character Sheet, do so. You can offer the things you get to any other character, but they can always refuse; each player has complete control over their own character.

Then Reduce all Quests by 1.For each Quest, pick up the die and replace it so it shows one number lower (See Start a Quest below, for an explanation on Quests and dice).

If a Quest reaches 0, it is finished. The player who created it gets to say how it ends and decides on the rewards (see below).

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Then Choose One Action:Start a Quest.Describe a new goal that must be achieved, and mark it on the map. How difficult is this Quest, from 1 (easiest) to 6 (an adventure)? Place a d6 on it, with that number facing up.

You can describe an Item, Person, Ability or a Reputation that will be gained as a reward when the Quest is done, or leave it open for now.

When the Quest is complete, the player who created it says how it ended. That player gets a new Quality, even if they decided that the Quest failed - just maybe make it an unwanted Quality.

Add a Thread.Introduce a new thing to the map, or add a detail to an existing Quest (and mark the addition on the map). It can be any player’s Quest.

If you add a detail that should make things easier, reduce the difficulty by 1. (Pick up the die and replace it so it shows one number lower). If the detail sounds like it’s complicating things, increase the difficulty by 1.

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Sit Around the Campfire.Pick an adventuring subject relevant to the campaign that is interesting to you, and discuss it with the other players, all in-character. Take about 3 minutes, no more. Any new detail you establish should be added as a new Quality to your Character Sheets or to the map.

Becoming ParagonIf the card you’re about to draw is the first of the Paragon Tier, stop!

◆ Everyone can now add a Quality of their choice to their character sheet, or re-phrase their class (maybe adding a descriptor).

◆ Place the second page next to the first — your map is now larger. Draw a line across the second page. These are the borders of the continent, or of the known world. From now on you can add new things within this new line.

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Becoming Epic and Ending the GameAll map restrictions are lifted; you can draw anything, anywhere.

During the Epic Tier, a card might say “You’ve Reached the Maximum Level”. The campaign now comes to an end!

Every player chooses a current Quest or creates a new Quest — one last thing they want to achieve. All Quests that weren’t chosen are cancelled, so that every player has one Quest, and no other Quests remain.

Starting with the player who drew the card and proceeding clockwise, all Quests are now resolved with a roll of a die. Add 1 for any Person, Item, Ability or Reputation that seem relevant, from any character sheet, but explain how they helped. If you got 8 or more, the Quest ended with a marvellous victory. With a 7 or less, you’ve failed in an epic manner; erase from your character sheet a number of things equal to the result, and describe what happened. (If playing with 5 players, you’ll need a 10 to succeed.)

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Frequently Asked Questions

What action should I take?When in doubt, default to Starting a Quest. Look at the campaign name and ask yourself what’s the next step your party or character should do to further that goal. If you don’t know where to begin, finding the answer can be a quest by itself. If you have something to say about a current Quest, simply Add a Thread to it.

If your character wants to achieve something or gain an item, start a Quest for it. If it feels as though your character should already have something — an item, a person, an ability — Sit Around the Campfire and describe it. You should Add a Thread when you want to create a location on the map that seems like “it should be there”, or as a hint for other players that you’re interested in a specific kind of thing.

If you haven’t Sat Around the Campfire lately, maybe you should. It’s a great way to get everyone on the same wavelength, and gather your thoughts. It allows you to advance the story without having to invent a specific new thing.

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What difficulty should I give a Quest?A 1 Quest is returning a lost child you’ve met in the woods. A 3 Quest is defeating the goblins infesting the swamp. A 5 Quest might be recovering the Majestic Anvil from the depths of the Lake of Tears.

When deciding on difficulty, consider what sorts of challenges might be in the way, how far away it is from the party’s current location, and how important it is to someone in the party. As a rule of thumb start with 3, then add or remove a point for each of these questions:

◆ Is there a significant challenge in the way? If so, add 1. If it’s straightforward, remove 1.

◆ Is it far away from your current general location? If so, add 1. If it’s close, remove 1.

◆ Does it have personal significance to any of the characters? If so, add 1.

If something sounds insanely hard then it’s probably several Quests, one after the other. First you must learn how to defeat the Mega-Dragon, then you hunt for the Amulet of Dragon-Killing in the sky castles, and finally you attack the Mega-Dragon in his lair.

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Can you fail a Quest?Sure. When a quest is over, the player who created it gets to say what actually happens. If it seems unlikely that your party was able to finish it, especially if you’re nowhere around, perhaps you simply failed it. You might have been too late, it might have been a false lead, the dragon might have awoken before you managed to get there. Sounds like a great opportunity for a new quest!

I can't decide how to phrase my Quest...Try to be specific, and talk about actions, not intentions. If you want to help the royal family reinforce their sovereignty, ask yourself what action your party can take in order to achieve that goal, to advance that agenda. Maybe you can uncover the plot against them, or go in search of the lost Crown of Command. You can also add some challenges to a Quest by simply mentioning some conflict (“Infiltrate the dissidents’ secret sewer stronghold and recover the plans from the magicaly locked chest”) or you can keep it simple for now (“Enter the temple in the mountains”).

If unsure of what to do, declare your intention and ask the others for help with the specifics.

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What's an unwanted Quality?Something that sounds like it makes your character’s life harder. Here are a few examples.

◆ Person: an evil spirit following me around.

◆ Item: add “broken” in front of “magical sceptre”.

◆ Ability: add “uncontrolled” in front of your “fireball”.

◆ Reputation: wanted for murder in the Gullies

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Some Further ThoughtsIf you're intrested in refining your group’s playing experience, consider reading aloud the following pages, after everyone had a chance to take a turn or two and get a general feel of the game.

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Moving on the mapYou might get a card that says you’re in a city, right after a card that said you’re in a cave. Try to find a way to connect the two with a story - that’s what makes the game fun! What made you head to the city? Maybe the “city” is a bunch of tents inside the cave. Maybe the “cave” is a series of sewers beneath the city. Use retroactive justification to connect the dots and help things make more sense.

You can use a token to represent the party’s location. However, many groups find that they have no need for it, since it’s easy to remember “where we generally are” at any point. It might even be better to keep the party’s location abstract, like “somewhere between the Mesa and the Inn of the Savage”.

If a Quest ends, but it seems you’re just too far away from that location, you might want to say that it ended in defeat — you didn’t manage to complete it in time. What are the repercussions? What evil is now free to roam the land? What new Quest will you begin to defeat it?

If a Quest ends, but it seems like you passed through that location a few turns ago and already continued on your way, you can say it was finished while you were around — and only now you get to describe the results.

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You can always mark new things on the map, if it seems appropriate. The map should be the canvas that reflects your adventures. If in doubt, mark it.

Creating new thingsLeave open spaces to be filled in later. When you’re on the run from the guards, you don’t have to establish the cause of the chase if you don’t have a good idea right now. You can invent a reason later on, as needed.

When you’re told to add a Quality to your Character Sheet, you can choose to change an existing Quality instead. If you think you need to add or change something even though a card didn’t say to do so, pause for a moment to discuss it with your fellow adventurers and decide. If you have more than 3 Qualities in a category, you probably have too many.

Consider reusing things by developing them. If you’re told you’ve met “the queen”, you can create a new queen, but you can also decide an already established Person recently became the queen.

Try not to offer suggestions during someone else’s turn, unless they ask for ideas. Restrict discussing questions like “What I think we should do now” to in-character conversations while Sitting Around the Campfire.

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What kind of Quests should I create? A Quest should arise from your Character Sheet. Do you have an Item you don’t know anything about? Start a Quest to go in search of information. Do you want a new ability to complement your class? Go on a Quest to learn it. The Brotherhood of the Shroud is trying to summon an unknown demon? Start a quest to raid one of their shrines in search of answers. Quests should be about things your character wants to achieve and the way you want the story to unfold.

Quests should always relate either to previously established in-game events or to the campaign name. These are the borders we made for our story, so let’s try to stay within them.

Your campaign name is the high concept for the whole game — use it as a guideline. If you’re “Fighting against the Barbaric Invasion”, try to keep a lot of invading barbarians in the story; if you find that you’re moving away from it, the campaign name you chose probably didn’t click with you. Talk about it as a group, and consider changing it.

If you’re looking for a vastly different experience, try a vastly different campaign name: Explorers of the Outer Dimensions (How do you move between dimensions?

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What is your purpose out there?), Fall of the Corrupted Empire (A story about vile bureaucrats and power hungry nobles), Seekers of Redemption (From which god? How does one find redemption?), etc.

You should avoid time travel, it usually ends with a big mess that just isn’t fun at all. It isn’t exactly a common fantasy trope anyway.

I need some inspiration to create things...Yeah, it takes practice. Here are some tools you can use:

Expand on something from the map. I want to create a Quest about defeating a dragon. There’s a seaside cliff on the map… maybe that’s where the dragon is. In an undersea cave.

Connect it to a Quality. I want to decide how this Quest ended, and what new Quality we gained from it. I have “Jarrick the Shark” on my Character Sheet, and I haven’t used him yet, I just created him a few turns ago because a card told me to create “a sneaky villain”. Well, maybe we failed the Quest, because we find that he stole the treasure from under our noses.

When in doubt, specify. What makes this thing different from the rest?

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Take a noun and add an adjective. The card tells me I defeated a “large horde of small creatures”. Maybe rats… but that’s not really interesting. How about BURNING rats? Or something less crazy, but still distinctive: Sky rats. No idea what it means, yet.

I need motivation to go adventuring...You might find that the campaign name is not enough to motivate your characters to head out into the world. You can add the following questions to the character creation process, to give each character something to strive for.

To create a cooperative atmosphere, and to make sure that all players have an interest in every character, you should have other players answer these questions for your character.

◆ What are you running from? The player to your right answers. Examples: my family, the vengeance of my elder brother, the usurpers to the throne, poverty

◆ What are you running toward? The player to your left answers. Examples: a comfortable life, true love, proving my worth to the princess, learning to control my power, removing the curse from the Gate of Wrath

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Motivations give you something to strive for, to try and achieve. Don’t invest too much time answering them, they will change and evolve anyway. If you ever achieve a motivation, change it to something else, more exaggerated than before — there’s always something more you want, always something haunting you.

Should you create conflicting motivations? Probably not. It’s messy, and can lead away from fun, instead of toward it. Look at your campaign name and try to answer the questions in a way that supplements it, while not going against established motivations of other players.

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Campaign Name Reign of the Giants

Class Priest of the Black Void

Appearance Dark robes, eyes completely black

Name Yae of the Ruins

Persons Items

Abilites

Knows about giants

Black-hole eyes

Reputation

Prophet of Void (foretelling the coming of giants)

Robe of night

Orb from the jungles

Adept of the Void

Prince in exile from the Ruins

Harm

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Campaign Name City of Dread

Class Gravedigger

Appearance Carries a rune-inscribed shovel

Name Grime-ridden Shay

Persons Items

Abilites

Can smell death

Earth-burst (pushing magic shovel into ground)

Reputation

My angry father, who’s a lich

Slavers of the woods (I owe their king) (chasing me now)

Key to the Necrovault (it’s a song sheet)

Brought ruin on Harbourtown

Harm 1

On Your Turn...Draw a card. Read aloud both choices but only answer one. Reduce all Quests by 1. If a Quest reaches 0, it is finished. The player who created it gets to say how it ends and gains a Quality.

Then, Choose One Action:Start a Quest. Describe a new goal that must be achieved, and mark it on the map. How hard it is, 1 to 6? Add a thread. Introduce a new thing to the map, or add a detail to an existing Quest. Sit around the campfire. Pick a subject matter that is interesting to you, and discuss it with the other players, all in-character, for 3 minutes. Add any detail you established, to the map or your Character Sheets.

Remember!You can always mark new things on the map, if it seems appropriate. You can use simple icons, but the only writing allowed is location names.When you’re told to add something to your Character Sheet, you can choose to change an existing something instead. If you think you need to add or change something even though a card didn’t say to do so, discuss it among yourselves. You can offer the things you get to another character, but they can always refuse.